Snap Start!

Yo-Yo Trick

Alright, the next trick we're going to look at is Snap-Start. Looks like that. Super quick, probably the quickest yo-yo trick in the book. It's almost not even a trick. It's like an anti-trick, but that kind of makes it the best trick you know? It's really useful. You can be in the middle of a show, mess something up horribly, not know what to do. And you just snap your fingers, and you're back to playing. The audience is more mystified and amazed by your Snap-Start than they were by your trick. It's very useful.

To do it, put your thumb on one side of the yo-yo (on one half) and your middle finger on the other, kind of at 9 (o'clock) and 3 (o'clock). You're going to turn the yo-yo, applying torque. I like to hold the string away from the gap so that if you have any string tension issues, they don't become an issue with the gap. As you turn it, in the beginning it's going to feel like it's your wrist. Because you're not familiar with the trick, you're kind of turning it like a doorknob. It's not going to have enough torque to bring the yo-yo back to your hand. As you develop some more familiarity with the trick, you're going to be moving that strength from your wrist to your fingers. And that will cause the yo-yo to pop up, which will engage the friction within the yo-yo, and that will cause it to come back to your hand. And it becomes really useful.

It's especially useful for fixed axle yo-yo's because once you've got it, you can snap right into tricks. You can snap into Forward Pass, regenerate to Trapeze, start a combo. it becomes an effective tool for actually beginning tricks. You can snap into Lunar Landing. You can snap into a cross-armed kind of Kwyjibo mount. You can snap into a Balance Stall. You can even snap it really hard into a Sidewinder, and adjust your string tension that way. So it becomes really useful. Snap-Start is definitely one of your go-to's for fixed axle yo-yoing. It's definitely a key element, not just in terms of starting the yo-yo, but also in terms of trick development. So, play around with it. It's fun!